This is a post from a comment received by Trina Clay, a student with Seattle Central Community College. Please consider completing the survey. We have some hope that future leaders of our community, such as college students interested in pursuing a career that might put them in direct contact with CPS activities, might drive positive change.

Below is Ms. Clay’s original request through my website. Please note I have not verified any information provided below, but was able to link Ms. Clay’s signature below with her professional credentials.

Thank you and my prayers for you always.
-LMo.

Comment by TRINA CLAY on May 24, 2013 2:25 pm

***This survey has been revised so that everyone has the ability to provide some feedback***
Across the country, children of color are present in the child welfare system at rates greater than their proportions in the population. This over-representation is referred to as “racial disproportionality.” In Washington State, a 2004 study of the child welfare system in King County found that American Indian (Indian) and Black children were overrepresented at all points in the system. This “racial disproportionality” is the reason many children of color are unnecessarily removed from their homes, and causing a struggle in the families reunification process. If you have been impacted by the child welfare system, please take a brief moment to complete this 10 question survey.

Your responses will be treated confidentially and will not be used for any purpose other than to conduct research on the Child Welfare System. Accordingly, any information you provide in respect will not be used in any way that is inconsistent with the purpose of this online survey. No information obtained from this survey will be disclosed to any outside parties. I intend to provide a report on my findings to my Quantitative Principles class at Seattle Central Community College. Please feel free to share the link to others who may have been impacted as well.

(This blog is from May 14, 2010 with some edits.) (Please be patient while I learn my way around WordPress.)

I wanted to share some thoughts with you before I fully charge on this project.

In the next few weeks, I will be reviewing and organizing what I believe are the most critical documents presented in my trial. I would like to post them publicly for citizens to review and learn from. I think people will find some common themes in the methods used by the DCF and related agencies to remove children without a significant foundation of facts. Constitutional rights are being violated and no one is exempt from the chances of falling into the dependency trap. I’d like to make these documents available for your review and help provide and an overall reality check on what is truly going on in the dependency court and child welfare system. There is a real-life story that takes place in a period of almost a year, so it will take some time to distribute this information in its most accurate and beneficial form, but it will happen.

I heard from various attorneys the same statement, “once you are caught in the child welfare system, it is hard to get out. I believe my case is unique for the following reason. I was not a parent accused from the get-go. I was a parent who reported a crime, or a “possible” crime, that was not followed through. Then, a completely new fabricated document was creatively developed against me, by the State-contracted workers that I reported to the State of Florida as “non-responsive”. The other aspect of my case that is unique is that the State of Florida placed my child in temporary custody of her father who lives with the person that my child said had hurt her in a sexual manner. This is pure negligence. To this day, the investigating authorities have not criminally interviewed the alleged perpetrator. The courts have put in “protection” clauses into court orders, before and after my trial which are ridiculous given the fact that the child spent almost ten (10) months living in that home with that man. Even now after my trial, my daughter will need to spend (currently) one overnight in that home every other week. Like Tonya Craft, there is still “family” court left to deal with. Unlike criminal and dependency courts, you do not get public counsel. You are left to fend after a traumatic ordeal. Where is the justice in the justice “system”?

The best I can do to heal and cope with the trauma experienced by all my loved ones and dear friends is to be active in getting the word out to you.